I used to keep mine in the cellar and dole them out a little at a time. One year I got a load of larger pumpkins and really didn't feel like keeping them inside my cellar due to space issues. I kept them out in my broody pen where they froze. Later on they must have thawed and then refroze, because they looked like deflated basketballs. One warm day in Jan. I decided to clean them out of there in preparation for broody season, so I removed one and placed it on the ground behind me and then went after another.
I heard a ripping noise and some angry clucking and squawking and turned around to see my sheep and chickens fighting over these sad-looking, deflated and slightly moldy pumpkins! I had never seen them respond that way to the pumpkins I had carefully stored and fed before decomposition had set in~at best they would show mild interest in some of the walls of the pumpkins but never the seeds or stringy innards. They continued to fight over and eat the pumpkins until there wasn't a shred of them left!
I learned a lesson that day and, after reading posts from Freemotion on feeding fermented foods to animals, I concluded the lesson I had learned was a good one. I now don't worry about cold storing pumpkins, as the freezing and subsequent thawing removes most of the moisture out of the gourd and when they freeze again it kind of preserves them in a dry, chewy state that the animals seem to love.
When pumpkins went bad in my cellar, they seemed to be a gooey, smelly mess and, when thrown out, something that the animals avoided.
To me, the choice was clear....the animals seem to get more enjoyment and use out of the pumpkins I left in cold storage and so I proceeded to follow suit each year. I have never had any illness in my chickens or sheep, so the mold doesn't seem to be an issue.